Should be interesting to see how this board performs over my Landparty nf4 ultra-d
Will post some comparative results asap

He he..someone finally got enough courage to try the board nicknamed "Tweek Attack" by Anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2752

Sweeeeeet eye CANDY!!

Got one of those along with some other stuff just itching for a PSU.

I've got both and they Both ROCK!!!
The Ultra D is awesome.
But the 3200 is super cool....I think I'll get over 3Ghz.
I'm going to add the naster card so I can go Crossfire soon.

Not loving the layout:

-If you put a card in the lowest PCI slot, you'll probably not see the diagnostic LEDs.

-Fan on chipset. Sucko in principle; hated it on NF4, hate it on CF3200.

-Memory on "wrong side" -- keeping the CPU socket towards the rear ensures you don't have problems with large CPU coolers (ie Zalman 7700, Blue Orb II) fouling the drive cages.

-Don't like the floppy drive "on its side" plug. Hated those on my old Abit AV8's IDE too.

-Meeds legacy ports. It's not like they're jam-packing the rear panel with other goodies.

-They could give you an x4 slot instead of one of the x1s, perhaps?

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo Not loving the layout: -If you put a card in the lowest PCI slot, you'll probably not see the diagnostic LEDs. -Fan on chipset. Sucko in principle; hated it on NF4, hate it on CF3200. -Memory on "wrong side" -- keeping the CPU socket towards the rear ensures you don't have problems with large CPU coolers (ie Zalman 7700, Blue Orb II) fouling the drive cages. -Don't like the floppy drive "on its side" plug. Hated those on my old Abit AV8's IDE too. -Needs legacy ports. It's not like they're jam-packing the rear panel with other goodies. -They could give you an x4 slot instead of one of the x1s, perhaps?

This board was not designed for people like you THANK GOD!!!!


Other than a sound card...how many people use PCI slots these days? and even at that, the audio on this board is pretty damn decent. so most people will not bother with a soundcard unless they are "Hardcore" about there music or gaming, almost everything you could possibly need is built in allready.

Complaints about a floppy drive connector is like complaining about having the spare tire under the bed of a truck, and not in a easier place to get too..and you would probably call AAA to change it for you if you ever got a flat

I have not had a floppy up to my PC in years other than temporarily for the occasional need to install Sata drivers... wich annoys me to no end as it is!

Legacy ports do nothing but take up space and add extra traces that reduce performance..I suppose you are mad that they stopped putting ISA slots on boards too?

The NB chipset fan is not realy a huge deal, a standard passive cooler would get in the way of using crossfire, the only other viable alternative is a gagglef*ck of heatpipes that add cost and clutter up the board.

The target audience for this board would probably install watercooling anyways and throw the stocker in the trash can if they were not happy about it....DFi is not Abit (Meaning the fan won't die in 6 months)

That leaves two semi-legitimate complaints..the ram causing clearance issues..well that may be true if you populate it with four sticks of ram..wich is generally a big no-no with AMD 64 because then you have to use 2-T memory timings that kills memory performance...gamers and overclockers know this and will purchase large capacity sticks, or upgrade down the road to them if they feel it is neccesary to increase capacity.

And finally, at this point there are no ( I have only seen one) PCIE add in cards to speak of..and no signs that they are ready to make the change any time soon...I suppose you missed the fact there are two 16x slots for the video cards? I mean that is realy the only item that needs any kind of bandwidth...with 2 video cards you can support 4 monitors, how many more does the average gamer realy need?

You are the same type of person that would walk into a Ferrari dealer and complain about the crappy location of cupholders
( I am just using that for an example, I don't think they have any place in a car like that to begin with, and I have never realy looked because I am too busy drooling over everything else to notice piddly things like that)

This board was designed for pure performance in gaming and overclocking..I bet you drive a minivan...LMAO!

I knew a guy like you once that owned a new 92 Vette that was always kept immaculate, and one day I asked him how nice it lays rubber..his response? "Why would I ever want to do such a thing?"

I know this is a bit harsh, but you realy have to keep in mind who this is built for!

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo Not loving the layout: -If you put a card in the lowest PCI slot, you'll probably not see the diagnostic LEDs. -They could give you an x4 slot instead of one of the x1s, perhaps?

If you need them you could always take out the card.

And what exactly would you put in the x4 slot?

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo Not loving the layout: -If you put a card in the lowest PCI slot, you'll probably not see the diagnostic LEDs. -Fan on chipset. Sucko in principle; hated it on NF4, hate it on CF3200. -Memory on "wrong side" -- keeping the CPU socket towards the rear ensures you don't have problems with large CPU coolers (ie Zalman 7700, Blue Orb II) fouling the drive cages. -Don't like the floppy drive "on its side" plug. Hated those on my old Abit AV8's IDE too. -Meeds legacy ports. It's not like they're jam-packing the rear panel with other goodies. -They could give you an x4 slot instead of one of the x1s, perhaps?

One of the things I love about this board is the layout!
I have the Thermalright Ultra 120 installed and have no problems BTW- and its HUGE!

The chipset fan...hmmm... some users change to the Evercool VC-RE without complaintas it helps lower the temps when OCing..and less than $10US. But on My Abit IC7-G MaxII - I HAD to replace it about three months later. No complaint there either. This is not a layourt issue its a component issue. I changed mine in the Ultra D as well. Infact every MB I have recently, I changed the chipset cooler. Oops not on my ASRock Dual Sata II.

Maybe not to your point but just as an FYI, I know if you do video editing work and use certain video capture/effects cards, they recommend installing their cards as far away from the video port as possible. However this board is not on any list as compatible for video editing that I know of. But I installed my matrox card just to see how it would work with the DFI board-and I tried every slot and it was fine. Even in the last slot. and to your point I just had to look at the LEDs from a different angle.

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro This board was not designed for people like you THANK GOD!!!! Other than a sound card...how many people use PCI slots these days?

TV tuner cards, 802.11 cards, SCSI cards, I think some of the RAMdisc cards are PCI. Most if not all of which can find legitimate homes inside enthusiast systems.

Quote: Legacy ports do nothing but take up space and add extra traces that reduce performance..I suppose you are mad that they stopped putting ISA slots on boards too?

The parallel port is irreplacable, because there are a wide array of cool projects which run off it. How many of you have built a parallel port LCD for example? And PCI parallel isn't as good because it tends to reside at an odd high port number which some badly written software can't find.

Quote: The NB chipset fan is not realy a huge deal, a standard passive cooler would get in the way of using crossfire, the only other viable alternative is a gagglef*ck of heatpipes that add cost and clutter up the board.

Well, you COULD:
-put the Northbridge on the CPU side of the X16 slots.
-move the PCI-E slots down one or two slots to make clearance... maybe make the layout from top to bottom PCI PCI x16 x1 x1 X16

Quote: The target audience for this board would probably install watercooling anyways and throw the stocker in the trash can if they were not happy about it....DFi is not Abit (Meaning the fan won't die in 6 months)

Fan death is environment as well as heredity. My house is full of pet fur and desert dust; you should see what my Zalman heatsink looks like after a month or two. It also counts against silent computing even when it lives. Considering the sound level of the X1800 and X1900 parts, I would think every decibel saved counts.

Quote: That leaves two semi-legitimate complaints..the ram causing clearance issues..well that may be true if you populate it with four sticks of ram.

No, my complaint is that putting the RAM close to the back means you put the CPU too close to the front, and bigger heatsinks might foul the case or optical drives. Remember when full-ATX first started getting common? A lot of us found we couldn't have our CD drives in our old cases without smashing capacitors at the end of the board. Now we've got to worry about heatsinks which probably extend beyond the board edge (anyone got a 7700 or Blue Orb II to test?)

Quote: And finally, at this point there are no ( I have only seen one) PCIE add in cards to speak of..and no signs that they are ready to make the change any time soon...I suppose you missed the fact there are two 16x slots for the video cards?

I've seen a handful; I think there's an ATi-chipset TV card, a RAMdisc card, some legacy-ports-on-a-card cards. If PCI-E is the future, then ostensibly more cards are coming, and I'd prefer to have the widest possible slots available. If you can give me x4 slots, and they're backwards-compatible to x1, why give me x1?

Quote: You are the same type of person that would walk into a Ferrari dealer and complain about the crappy location of cupholders

If I'm gonna spend $80 on an ECS or ASRock, I can accept compromises. My 939SLI32-eSATA2 features a silly floppy layout and is a bit cramped around the IDE plugs in my present case. Of course, it was $87 delivered. But if I'm spending $175, I expect it to do EVERYTHING right.

( I am just using that for an example, I don't think they have any place in a car like that to begin with, and I have never realy looked because I am too busy drooling over everything else to notice piddly things like that)

Quote: This board was designed for pure performance in gaming and overclocking..I bet you drive a minivan...LMAO!

"It runs fast" or "it's tweakable" DO NOT apologize for all sins. There are valid alternative design decisions. You could have the diagnostic LEDs where they can be seen, at least.

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo "It runs fast" or "it's tweakable" DO NOT apologize for all sins. There are valid alternative design decisions. You could have the diagnostic LEDs where they can be seen, at least.

That is why ASUS is popular...they are built for the masses, and Overclock reasonably well.

DFI is not for people that are so concerned about such minor issues, they spend there time where it counts..performance first, everything else is a bonus.

Again, it's like complainng about any decision that Ferrari makes in areas that are concerning comfort or convenience..so what if the radio controls are hard to reach when you are doing 200MPH..that is why they sell alot more Honda S-2000's than Enzos.

Care to rip on this upcoming AM-2 board?

Quote: You will notice that between the two 16x slots on this NF590 chipset mobo, DFI put in two different sockets. Instead of two 1x slots, this DFI has a 4x and an 8x, a potentially useful and fun setup. Actually, the 4x only has 2 lanes running into it, but that is not a huge disadvantage. If you want to run a decent RAID system on your SLI box, or you want to do multiple GigE channels, you probably would welcome the extra bandwidth. Even if you only have a few 1x cards, the slots are still backwards compatible, so there is absolutely no harm in having them there. In doing this, DFI made a pretty unique board with only up sides, almost no down sides, and a negligible added cost. µ

Any complaints they stopped using caps? You better post anything you want them to fix, I am sure they would love to hear from you at DFI street before it goes into production...

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56527

BTW, they did address the 1x issue, when the CF board was on the drawing board, there was nothing to warrent them.

Attached Thumbnails

 

(looks at link)

Well, I notice they DID move the diagnostic LEDs where you can see 'em.

It looks like the southbridge heatsink actually blocks a SATA port. Weird.

I was actually amused to see the back-and-forth on chipset cooling on the DFI Street page. Perhaps the ideal solution is to put on a decent sink, speced for stock speed, and then also a snap-on fan in the box. People who don't want it can do without.

Have had this board for a week now and absolutely love it. As far as 'tweakability' goes... I haven't even skimmed the surface yet. The layout, while it is a bit unusual, is very functional. The diagnostic LEDs are easy to see even with a PCI card in the bottom slot (moved it just to see how it looked). The 'lacking' of I/O items that you're seeing on the back plate is due to the fact that they don't have the sound jack filled with the supplied 8-Channel audio set.

My only complaint, as weak as it may be, is the need for an extra internal USB connector. There are only 2 on-board attachments for USB connections. In my case, my case needs one for front USB access. My card reader/USB slot/SATA access need two. For tweakers, I know.. not a valid complaint.. but would be a nice extra.

Im a fan boy of my DFI Ultra sli-dr through and through, but i do have on complaint that seems to still be a problem on their upcoming hardware......from what i can see. That damn northy.........It is destined to never be watercooled on that board. Ive seen a couple of blocks that are compatible but look to restrictive to even be worth the time.

well I DID finally get a working version of this board. A few months and an RMA later.
This board has alot of options....need I say more.
The one problem I see more than anything, is that there arnt alot of people experianced with it enough to give good advice about what the memory timings should be with ocz ddr 600 platinum limited edition.
stock timings yeild nothing, not even a windows install. following OCZtony's guide for 4800 plat elites I did manage to get windows installed. So far my memory wont run anything BELOW 600 stable.. Weird.
I've still yet to reach an overclock as high as on my ultra-d. but with some Bawlz and a weekend I see something on the horizon.